1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescence apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as organic EL apparatus) having organic electroluminescence devices (hereinafter, referred to as organic EL devices) on a support substrate.
2. Related Art
The organic EL apparatus has a structure having a pixel region where a plurality of pixels are arranged on a support substrate and each of the pixels is provided with at least a first electrode layer, an emission layer, and a second electrode layer to form an organic EL device. In such an organic EL apparatus, the second electrode layer is formed of a thin film so as to cover a plurality of pixels. Therefore, when the second electrode layer has high electric resistance or electric resistance varies depending on the region, a variation in brightness occurs in the organic EL apparatus. In particular, in a top-emission organic EL apparatus wherein light emitted from the organic EL devices is emitted from the side (the opposite side of the side where the support substrate is disposed) where the second electrode layer is disposed, the second electrode layer is required to have translucency. Accordingly, the second electrode layer is decreased in thickness, and thereby a variation in brightness caused by the electric resistance of the second electrode layer readily occurs.
Accordingly, it is proposed to prevent the variation in brightness caused by the electric resistance of the second electrode layer by disposing an auxiliary wiring layer of a metal film, such as aluminum, such that the auxiliary wiring layer is in contact with the upper side or the lower side of the second electrode layer. In such a technology, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, the auxiliary wiring layer 88 extends between adjacent pixels 100a not to interrupt the light emitted from the organic EL devices (see Patent Document 1: JP-A-2006-80094).
However, in the structure described in Patent Document 1, a sufficient space is necessary for disposing the auxiliary wiring layer 88 between the adjacent pixels 100a, and, therefore, the pixels are necessarily decreased in size. In addition, when a substrate provided with organic EL devices and a translucent substrate provided with color filters so as to oppose each other for color display, in many cases, a light-shielding layer 23 is disposed, in the plan view, in a region between adjacent pixels in order to prevent, for example, color mixing. In these cases, the light-shielding layer 23 necessarily has a large width such that the auxiliary wiring layer 88 does not protrude from the light-shielding layer 23. As a result, it is caused a disadvantage that the ratio of the light emission region occupying in the pixel 100a (pixel aperture ratio) is decreased.